My name is Stephanie Oakes, and for
my third assignment in my CIS127 class at Mount Wachusett Community College, I
chose to review and evaluate Jeffrey Allen’s paper “It’s Two A.M.: Do You Know Where Your Data Is and Who Can Access It?”
This article was written about law office
security, but I believe the information contained within the piece can benefit
everyone.
People always think about the safety of
their car, their health, job security, and financial security, very few tend to
think of their network security. With the advancement of technology, people can
manage their whole lives on their personal computers and today even their
mobile devices; banking, paying bills, retirement planning, and investment
portfolios, all on devices that are easily lost or stolen.
Do you know what your personal computer’s
firewall is setup to block or protect? How about backup, do you regularly set
up new restore points? Don’t forget about your mobile network, do you have and
backup or cloud storage resources installed? What about anti-theft software?
This article doesn’t tell you step by step how to fix these issues, but it
gives us enough information to become more aware and gives the audience a place
to start.
The first topic Allen covers is physical
security. Many of us have alarm systems and most everyone has a door lock. But
these days, that just is not enough. Alarm companies now offer more services to
protect your home including wireless service, home monitoring, motion
detection, and remote systems. The more protection you have for your home the
safer you will not only be, but your personal information as well. The article
continues with the actual equipment, computers. Since we are just talking home
security and personal equipment, I’ll skip over the locking it to your desk
part. This section does bring up a good point on malware. Norton.com
defines malware as “a category of malicious code that includes viruses, worms,
and Trojan horses”. Allen tells us that we can minimize this risk by buying and
installing reliable anti-virus software onto all of our computers and keeping
it up to date.
The next two topics are closely related,
but I’m going to separate them into two different paragraphs because I think
that they both have key points.
The first one being password protection.
This should always be the first step in protecting data files, personal files,
and even your identity. All files, computers, and even mobile devices should be
protected by passwords that are multi character, lengthy, with nothing personal
or relevant to yourself. All too often, even with password protection a person’s
personal files or identity is stolen because someone guessed a password such as
“PASSWORD” or “letmein” or even your own name.
I learned that I am even guilty of incorrect password protection. A
person should have a different password for each account they have and those
passwords should be changed at least twice a year. Remembering what password
goes with what account can be impossible, so remember to write them all down.
But storing them in a secure place is important, otherwise what is the use of a
password?
Network security is just as important as
password protection, which is why most professional networks are password
protected. Think about it, your network is open and unprotected, if your
neighbor is savvy enough, they may be able to get access to your home computer
and all of your personal information.
The mobile network is one most people
forget about. Wireless networks such as 3G and Wi-Fi are just part of our
everyday life now. These networks should also be protected, it’s as easy as
changing the settings to make sure your device is not tethered to something
else and is not a hotspot, sharing your network. With the explosion of mobile
devices such as phones, tablets, IPad, and laptops comes a new security threat,
theft. We now must be sure that our devices are on us or our eyes are on them
at all times. Walking away from our devices, out of forgetfulness, even for a
minute, increases that threat. Making sure your device is always with you will
minimize the problem, also keeping as much personal and important information
off your devises will lessen the threat of a stolen device, sometimes password
protection isn’t always enough.
In the event your personal device is
stolen or damaged you should have a backup plan. That includes restore points
on your computer and storage from cloud sites. Having multiple storage options
guarantees that you will be able to retrieve your data from wherever you have
an internet connection.
It doesn’t matter if our use of computers
or mobile devices it personal or professional, we can all employ the
information in Jeffrey Allen’s article. This article can be the starting point
of our safety map. Every one of us can be more aware of our actions and our
safety protocols.
After I finished reading Allen’s article I
did a little reading in my textbook about malware, I was surprised to learn
that there were more classifications of malware than just worms, viruses, and
Trojan horses. There are also back
doors, rootkits, and spyware. Also that while malware usually only relates to
one of those applications, some malware have multiple characteristics from two
or three of the applications. Malware has many ways it delivers its destructive
payload, malware can be delivered when a user opens an infected file, runs an
infected program, boots a computer with a removable drive that is infected,
when an event occurs such as a clock reaching a certain time, opening emails
with infected attachments, and more often, navigating to an infected web site.
I know that now that I have a better
education of internet and network safety, and mobile and personal devices I
will take better care to protect myself and my information.
Work Cited
Allen, Jeffrey. "It's Two A.M.: Do You Know Where Your
Data Is And Who Can Access It?." American Journal Of Family Law 28.1
(2014): 20-24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 May 2014.
<http://ezmw.ez.cwmars.org:4200/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.
aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=94589596&login.asp?custid=wchstcc&site=ehost
-live>.
Shelly, Gary B., Misty E. Vermaat, Jeffrey J. Quasney, Susan L. Sebok,
and Steven M. Freund. Discovering Computers: Your Interactive Guide to the
Digital World: Introductory. Boston, MA: Course Technology, Cengage
Learning, 2012. Print.
